


Of Giraffes, Hot Chocolate, and Jealousy

by madameponine



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Multi, Polyamory, idk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-27
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-27 04:32:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2679227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madameponine/pseuds/madameponine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Sooooo, who is it? Courfeyrac or Marius?" </p>
<p>"Uh, both?" </p>
<p>Or, in which Cosette is very confused and there are two very attractive boys frequenting her cafe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry I'm so bad at summaries- I tried

The tinkling of the bell above the door announced the new arrivals. Cosette didn't bother to even look up, occupied as she was with making her current drink. The customer was already looking angry, and she needed all of her concentration for even the simplest of drinks. 

"Damn, those two are hot! I call the giraffe," her co-worker, best friend, partner in crime, etc. etc., Éponine, whispered in her ear. She glanced up to see the object of her friend's admiration. She nearly dropped the drink. Éponine laughed at her awed expression. The two men that had walked in were most definitely the most attractive human beings she had ever laid eyes on, and that included some very,  _very_ attractive people. The giraffe in question was most certainly a giraffe. He was tall and lanky, incredibly awkward in every movement. His light brown hair was messy, and he was wearing a sweater vest. He looked good in a  _sweater vest_. The other was short, though still taller than Cosette (she was a tragic 5'1''), with messy brown curls. He was grinning widely, his eyes crinkling up in a way that made Cosette want to smile. He was wearing a light blue v-neck with bright salmon jeans, an interesting fashion choice to be sure, but who was she to judge? 

"'Sette? Uh, your drink," Éponine cautioned, motioning to her now overflowing mug.

"Shit!" She cried, doing her best to wipe up the mess and turn off the machine. Éponine laughed, already getting started on a replacement.

"Maybe you should work the register for a while?" She asked, motioning for Cosette to take the next order. Cosette blushed profusely, stepping up.

Four orders later (it was their rush hour, and the line was long) the attractive ones had arrived at the counter. 

"H-hi. I-I'd l-l-like an, uhm, a w-well-" the tall one was blushing, his entire face turning a delightful shade of red. Before letting him bumble on further the shorter one had stepped up. 

"Sorry," he said, flashing one of those infectious smiles. "We'd like two hot chocolates," he winked and leaned in conspiratorially. "We promised we wouldn't drink any coffee today, something about getting 'too excited'," 

" _We_ , didn't agree anything! You were the one who isn't allowed to drink coffee, because, if I remember correctly, the last time you had coffee before a meeting you- " Shorty clamped a hand over Giraffe's mouth. The Giraffe had stopped talking anyway, and was blushing again, embarrassed by his outburst. 

"We promised never to speak of that," he glared at the the Giraffe. He rolled his eyes.

"Fine, So I'm the one not allowed to drink coffee. If I'm not allowed to drink it then neither are you. Can I add one of those muffins in the order? I'm starving," he glanced at Giraffe. "Sorry, better make that two muffins," the Giraffe frowned, but didn't say anything. Cosette smiled, amused by their friendship. She rung them up, handing Shorty the muffins. They made their way over to a small table in the corner of the cafe. She sighed dreamily. Éponine giggled.

"Ooh! Cosette's in love at last!" She teased. Cosette flipped her hair over her shoulder, turning away from her friend haughtily.

"Whatever," she said. Dammit, she was blushing. She took the next several orders with surprising aggression, seeming to scare the customers a bit. She was broken out of her mood by her boss, Musichetta, gently tapping her arm. 

"Cosette, maybe you should go back to drinks," she murmured, raising an eyebrow. Cosette looked down, embarrassed. 

"Uh, yeah, probably," Éponine giggled again and Cosette rolled her eyes at her. She shoved the girl playfully. While Cosette was short, Éponine was downright  _tiny._ She didn't even hit 5 feet. However, she was  _strong_ , and the light punch she gave Cosette did hurt. She laughed when Cosette muttered about bruises and went back to making drinks. Cosette realized the drinks they were on were Shorty and Giraffe's drinks. Hot chocolates, right. She finished them and put them on a tray, brainstorming ways to get one of their numbers. They were sitting on the same side of the table, laughing at something on Shorty's phone. When she set down their drinks they grinned up at her. 

"Hey, thanks!" Said Shorty. He looked thoughtful for a moment, glancing around the room.

"Can I talk to your boss real quick? It's just, we're part of this social justice group, kinda, and we really need a good place to meet. Could we maybe do meetings in here? We'd be good business, I promise. Everyone's super into coffee. And it'd only be on Wednesday and Friday nights." He looked up at her pleadingly. She shrugged.

"I don't know sorry. I can get Musichetta over here, if you want. It's her cafe," Shorty sprung up, hugging her.

"Great!" He said, bouncing on the balls of his feet enthusiastically. She could see why he wasn't allowed to have any coffee. 

"So, I'll uh, go get her then," She said, creeping away to find Musichetta. She was still taking orders.

"Hey, Chetta. Those two boys over there wanna know if their social justice group can meet here on Wednesday and Friday nights. Apparently they really like coffee," Cosette really,  _really,_ wanted them to meet there. It wasn't even  _entirely_ because of them. Well, maybe a little bit. A lot. Mostly. She was interested in the group though, and thought it would be an interesting change in atmosphere of the normally quiet Wednesday nights (she didn't work Fridays). Musichetta looked thoughtful.

"Hm. Maybe. I'll go talk to them," she marched off in their direction, leaving Cosette to work the register again. 

 

* * *

 

"Good news! Those boys are going to come with their friends tonight!" said Éponine, nudging her blushing friend. Musichetta had given the ok to a trial meeting, to make sure everything went smoothly. Cosette had, obviously, been over the moon. 

She could barely stand the next 45 minutes of waiting for everyone to get there. The meeting started at 7, and most of their normal customers had already departed. Usually Musichetta would close around 8, but the meeting would last a bit longer, so they would close to the public at 8, but let the group (apparently they were called Les Amis de l'ABC) stay. When finally 7 arrived, she waited eagerly for the first members to show up. They had no normal customers at the time, so the place was empty. The first to arrives was a tall man with glasses. He was even taller than Giraffe had been, but with less awkwardness. He was also, coincidentally, wearing a sweater vest. His face was buried in a book, but he glanced up at her and Éponine. 

"Hello. I'm here for the meeting. I'm assuming this is the right place?" he asked. Éponine nodded, stepping up as senior staff member.

"Yep, you're the first. Is there any way you want to set up the tables or anything? You can basically use that half of the room," she gestured to the more open half. The man smiled.

"I'm Combeferre by the way. Thank you so much for letting us use your space, we really appreciate it." Éponine smiled.

"Of course. If you need anything, we'll be here."  Combeferre nodded.

"Actually, could you help me move these tables and chairs into a circle?" Éponine and Cosette got up to assist him, and in a few minutes they had arranged a circle of chairs in the room. 

The door swung open, revealing another person. He was blonde, and very, very pretty. His face was classically beautiful, looking like some greek statue. His long blonde hair was windblown and his eyes were bright blue and very intense. Of course, he wan't quite as pretty as Giraffe and Shorty. Combeferre moved towards him.

"This is Enjolras. He's not our leader, but he is a very, very active member of our group," he glanced pointedly at the blonde. Enjolras frowned.

"We don't have any leader," He said, holding out his hand. Cosette took it first.

"Cosette. This is Éponine," she said, motioning towards Éponine. 

"Our boss is Musichetta. She's in the back doing something I'm sure, but she'll be here in a couple of minutes," Éponine. Enjolras also expressed his gratitude at being able to use the space. He was quickly followed by the arrival of two more, Bossuet and Joly. At this point Musichetta had appeared, and she was immediately taken with the two, linking arms with them and leading them over to the circle of chairs, chatting animatedly. Next were Feuilly and Bahorel. The former was a skinny redhead who appeared asleep on his feet, and the latter had two black eyes and was definitely over twice the height of Éponine. This group was full of some very tall people. Cosette also noticed that, for some inexplicable reason, they all had bizarre French names, but hey, who was she to judge? So did she. Finally, Giraffe and Shorty arrived.

"Do not fret any long mon amis, we have finally arrived!" announced Shorty, springing into the room with Giraffe on her arm. Enjolras stood up.

"Courf, I told you not to have any coffee!" Shorty (Courf?) stopped. 

"I didn't! All I drank all day was water, I promise. Well, I had a glass of orange juice too, but that was at breakfast so can you blame me?" Cosette thought she heard Bahorel muttering something about how gross orange juice was, and was tempted to go have a word with him about the juice, but restrained herself. Shorty seemed to notice her.

"Ah! The lovely barista and her lovely friend. I don't think I introduced us last week. I'm Courfeyrac, and this fellow is Marius, but you can call him Peanut," Giraffe (Marius) squawked with indignation. 

"You cannot call me Peanut! He's been trying for three days, no one is going to call me Peanut!" He was blushing again. The poor kid did blush a lot. Courfeyrac was laughing.

"Oh Peanut, just you wait." Marius pouted, but led Courfeyrac over to the circle. Enjolras sat down as well.

"Okay. This is everyone. Thank you again to Musichetta, Éponine and Cosette for letting us use your space," everyone chorused their thanks. Enjolras cleared his voice.

"Great. Now we can start," Cosette smiled.

She had a feeling she would like Les Amis. 


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Cosette is surprised, but not very much, and she proves Éponine wrong.

Cosette left the meeting with red cheeks, bright eyes, and a fire in her soul. Well, that was if she was trying to be poetic, but it just sounded lame. But it had been an interesting meeting. Enjolras had passionately spoken about a variety of issues, with Combeferre and Courfeyrac butting in to add their own stories and facts.

She noticed a bit of a hierarchy within the meeting, despite their insistence that there was no leader and no ranking within the group. Enjolras, Courfeyrac and Combeferre were the obvious leaders. As much as Courfeyrac and Combeferre had insisted that Enjolras was their honorary leader, she saw a definite partnership (co-leadership?) between the three. 

She learned a little about each of their personalities in the short time of the meeting;

Enjolras was partially insane and probably would have gotten himself killed if not for Combeferre. He had been (according to Courfeyrac) arrested eight times in the year, a personal best. Cosette also noticed his strange worship of Feuilly, which she was confused about, ever since noticing Feuilly sitting on Bahorel's lap and blushing profusely at what was being whispered in his ear when they thought no one was looking. 

He was, of course, studying poli-sci. 

Combeferre was the calm. It was him who put a firm hand on Enjolras's shoulder when he seemed about ready to leap off of the chair he was standing. It was him who had bailed Enjorlas and Courfeyrac (as well as the rest of Les Amis) out of jail countless times, at least when he wasn't stuck in it with the rest of them. He and Éponine hit it off immediately, both moaning about some apparently awful molecular evolution professor they both were supposed to have a course with the next semester. 

Bahorel was loud. He talked loud, he laughed loud, he even walked loud. His black eye had been the subject of several long stories told all night, and the first thing he did when Cosette approached him after the meeting was proceed to show her his favorite tattoo (a watercolored flower on his bicep), and tell a story about the deep scar above his left eyebrow. 

Feuilly was still a mystery. There was definitely something going on between him and Bahorel, but they didn't say they were dating, and Bahorel had mentioned a possible date with some girl from his boxing gym, so Cosette didn't really know the whole picture. 

Joly and Bossuet were best friends. Possibly more. Cosette honestly hadn't really talked to them, they were so absorbed in their conversation with Musichetta. Bossuet was entirely bald, despite looking as young as the rest. He spent the entire meeting falling of chairs, spilling his drink and getting hit by people's flying elbows, but when Cosette asked if he was ok he just laughed it off, claiming it happened incredibly often. Joly was wearing a gardening hat, and had floppy brown hair. He was perpetually laughing, except when Bossuet had a mishap, at which point he would begin to worry about various injuries and diseases that could ail him. 

Marius was every bit the giraffe she had first called him. He blushed easily, and would look down, his face, ears and neck all the same delightful shade of red that would completely cover his intensely freckled face. His arms and legs were long and gangly, and always seemed to be swinging about and hitting something or other. He started out looking vaguely uncomfortable and glancing over at Cosette from time to time, but by the end of the meeting he was raising his hand timidly and pointing things out like everyone else. His stutter disappeared around Courfeyrac, and Cosette never saw him move from his friend's side. He was adorable.

It was hard to tell that Courfeyrac hadn't had any coffee. He was nearly as awkward as Marius, and kept bumping into things and people unapologetically, knocking things off tables, falling off his chair, the list went on and on. The difference was that when Marius blushed and became embarrassed, Courfeyrac laughed it off and kept on going, perhaps becoming more and more energetic as the meeting wore on. His passion was just as strong as Enjolras, if perhaps less strongly worded, and his eyes were constantly alight with new ideas. He was also perhaps the most theatrical person Cosette had ever met, his short stature definitely made up by his large personality. He was always extending his arm and bowing, or sculpting his face into exaggerated expressions. He was also incredibly adorable.

She muffled her scream of exasperation into her pillow. They were so cute!

 

* * *

 

 

"Hiya Cosette!" Cosette looked up to see Marius and Courfeyrac standing in front of her. Marius once again was wearing a sweater and khakis, but this time Courfeyrac was wearing normal colored jeans, even if his shirt was covered in a bright sunflower pattern. She smiled brightly, ignoring her fluttering heart.

"Hey! What can I get you guys today? Coffee this time?" Courfeyrac pouted.

"I've been permanently banned from more than one coffee a day. Well, none on days when we have meetings, but we don't have a meeting until Wednesday. Are you gonna come?" Cosette nodded.

"Yep. Okay, so if no coffee are you going for hot chocolate again?" Marius shook his head.

"Cider today please," Courfeyrac glanced over the pastry selection.

"More muffins! And I'd like a hot chocolate actually," Cosette nodded and rang them up, smiling when Courfeyrac gave her a rather large tip. He winked at her (much to Marius's embarrassment) and the sidled off to a nearby table. She sighed dreamily. Éponine snorted from beside her.

"Sooooo, who is it? Courfeyrac or Marius?"

"Uh, both?" Cosette tried, wringing her hands.

"I just can't decide! They're both so cute!" Éponine looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Then just ask them both out or something," Cosette shook her head.

"It's not that simple. They probably aren't straight. Or if they are then they wouldn't both want to date me. Anyway, they probably want a monogamous relationship," she sighed unhappily. "No, I think the best way to put an end to this is decide which one to date, date him, and move over the other one. But it's so hard because they're both just so damn cute!" Éponine patted her shoulder encouragingly.

"You're pretty cute too Lark. Just wait. I bet one of them will ask you out themselves!" Cosette seriously hoped so. 

"Now go bring them their drinks. Maybe write down your number or something and whoever calls you first can be the one you date? I don't know, I've never dealt with this stuff before 'Sette. Just go," She shoved a tray into Cosette's arms, pushing her towards the table around the corner that the boys had disappeared to.

Cosette rounded the corner and nearly dropped her tray. 

Marius and Courfeyrac were definitely not straight.

Nope.

Definitely not.

Courfeyrac was in Marius's lap, and they were kissing like their lives depended on it.  Every few seconds they would break apart and smile into each other's faces, pressing their foreheads together in a way that made Cosette want to squeal. In a strange reversal of roles _Courfeyrac_ was the one blushing profusely as Marius appeared to be whispering something in his ear. Cosette felt herself blush. She wanted to back away, to not interrupt whatever was going on, but she had drinks to deliver and she was getting extremely jealous, so she awkwardly cleared her throat.

"Um Marius? Courf? I have your drinks," She pushed the tray towards them. They sprang apart in surprise. Courfeyrac's hair was a mess, and his arm was still around Marius's waist. 

"Oh uh Cosette! Yes, our uh our drinks yep. Thank you for, yeah, bringing us our drinks instead of us going up to get them you know that was nice uhm, thanks," Courfeyrac murmured. Marius was petting his hair as if he were a small pet or a cat or something and he was melting into his touch, obviously distracted. Cosette raised her eyebrows.

"I guess I'll just set them down here then," Marius smiled at her.

"Thank you," he said, and looked as if he were about to say more before Courfeyrac pulled him into another kiss. Cosette felt her breath catch, both wanting to watch more and wanting to depart as quickly as possible. She chose the latter and scrambled away, eager to tell Éponine what had happened and prove that she had, once again, been right. 

**Author's Note:**

> Oops sorry this took a long time to update. I kept writing it, deleting it, re-writing it, forgetting to save, etc. etc. I didn't really have any ideas, and I still didn't when I wrote this. Oh well. I'll update again eventually (I have lots of stuff right now so eh hopefully it will be some point next week maybe). Thanks for reading you're cool and nice. Have a lovely day guys!


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